a secret santa dropped $50,000 into one of those little red kettles. it happened in joplin, missouri. anonymous donor dropped five checks wrapped in dollar bills, each check for 10 grand and signed simply santa. we re told the same anonymous donor has dropped about a half million bucks in those red army kettles over the past eight years. but we re not sure how they know that. now to another christmas miracle. the actress lindsay lohan successfully getting through this month s court ordered service hours and she did it ahead of schedule. much to the surprise of the judge. ms. lohan, have you actually done the work. and done it not only on time but early. shepard: the judge gave her props for finishing the extra therapy sessions as well which key didn t have to do. not to mention her 2011 mugshot now has some competition with the latest edition to what is clearly an already impressive photo collection. her spread in playboy magazine
i continue to be that this decision represents a failure of leadership both iraqi and american that it was a sad case of political expediency triumphing over military necessity both in baghdad and in washington. shepard: regardless, december 31st is to mark the end of the nation s second longest war and mark a major milestone in american history. ed henry is live at the white house with nor on this tonight. the president tried to focus on the troops not on politics. that s right, shep. let s not forget the whole political career the fuel for it really was opposing the war in iraq. as a state senator he called it a dumb war. the bottom line as a candidate for president in 2008 he promised to bring all u.s. troops home by the end of his first term as he is now. he said there had been politically charged debate. he didn t want to get into that today. he thinks people on all sides of the debate were patriots
they shouldn t mess with the deal. take a listen. if we have a reasonable agreement with the republics on funding the government, we should seize that opportunity and do it and not hold it up for what may be more political considerations. now, the democratic leadership would like to tie that government funding bill with the payroll tax holiday, unemployment benefits and that is where things kind of get stuck, shep. shepard: mike, some breaking news happening as we are going through all of this. the time something good. the house of representatives has just voted to passion a big defense bill. mike, give us the details of that if you would, please. it s a 662 billion-dollar package to fund a lot of what our military does. a critical bill to pass. passed the house tonight by a wide margin. it will come up for a vote in the senate tomorrow. there was some controversy about the way you would handle terrorist suspects. initially said it would go to military custody instantly. the la
in the arab world, for instance, all the protesters in europe or occupy wall street here in this country or even the crowds who turned out in russia over the weekend. you are not happy to seat protesters on the front cover the time magazine. this should not be seen as a prize more as a measure of influence. listen. what s important is that all of these people in their own way and in their own countries helped to change the conversation. helped to bring attention to their causes in a way that we have not seen before. and it s forced not just ordinary people to pay attention to them but forced their governments and ruling elites to reckon with them. in a very serious way. editors also say they simply wanted to spark debate. they have certainly done that shep. shepard: they have done that very successful. others in the mix besides the one person. interesting group of runners up. among them admiral william
florida. a would-be thief broke into the wrong church east of tampa, turns out the pastor there is a war vet. he says he used his military training to track and subdue the suspect. i moved to these. and then i moved in around the corner and caught him at the entrance of the door right there. then he called the sheriff s office. new jersey, quite a christmas display at this home southwest of trenton. the owner says he plans a year in advance for the show. each year it gets a little bigger, brighter, better. of course, tackier. we re told the family raises money for a health care center and that s a fox watch across america. shepard: i m shepard smith. this is the fox report. it s the bottom of the hour. time for the top of the news. after nearly nine years of roadside bombs and sniper fire and suicide attacks, the end of the war in iraq is finally in sight. that s the message from